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Sloshing Loads in Liquid-Storage Tanks with Insufficient Freeboard

Article  in  Earthquake Spectra · November 2005


DOI: 10.1193/1.2085188

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TECHNICAL NOTE

Sloshing Loads in Liquid-Storage Tanks


with Insufficient Freeboard
Praveen K. Malhotra,a… M.EERI

Seismic ground motions excite long-period sloshing response in liquid-


storage tanks. A minimum freeboard is needed to prevent the sloshing waves
from impacting the roof of tanks. Since freeboard results in unused storage
capacity, many tanks are not provided with the sufficient freeboard. As a result,
sloshing waves impact the roof, generating additional forces on the roof and
tank wall. This article presents a simple method of estimating these
forces. 关DOI: 10.1193/1.2085188兴

INTRODUCTION
Seismic response of cylindrical liquid-storage tanks is reasonably well understood
共e.g., Jacobsen 1949; Housner 1963, 1982; Haroun and Housner 1981; Veletsos et al.
1974, 1977, 1984, 1997; Malhotra 2000; Malhotra et al. 2000兲. The liquid mass is as-
sumed divided into two parts: 共1兲 the impulsive mass near the base of the tank moves
with the tank wall, and 共2兲 the convective mass near the top experiences free-surface
sloshing motion. The natural period of vibration of the impulsive mass ranges from
0.1 s to 0.3 s and that of the convective mass ranges from 2 s to 6 s. The response of
the impulsive mass controls the base shear and overturning moment in the tank, whereas
the response of the convective mass controls the height of sloshing wave.
It is desirable to provide sufficient clearance 共freeboard兲 between the liquid surface
and the tank roof to prevent sloshing waves from impacting the roof during earthquakes.
However, it is not always practical to do so. For large diameter tanks, the required free-
board can be quite high. If provided, it results in unused storage capacity, which can be
quite expensive. For tanks located on deep soils or those subjected to near-field motions
共e.g., Somerville 1993, Malhotra 1999兲, the abundance of low frequencies in the ground
motion can result in very large freeboard requirement. Also, for tanks located on the
roofs of buildings, the freeboard requirement can be quite high. In such cases, it is com-
mon to compromise on the freeboard requirement.
Insufficient freeboard causes 共1兲 upward load on the roof due to impacts from the
sloshing wave, and 共2兲 increased impulsive mass due to constraining action of the roof.
The upward force could break the connection between the roof and shell and tear the

a兲
FM Global, 1151 Boston-Providence Turnpike, P.O. Box 9102, Norwood, MA 02062-9102; E-mail:
Praveen.Malhotra@FMGlobal.com

1185
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 21, No. 4, pages 1185–1192, November 2005; © 2005, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
1186 P. K. MALHOTRA

Figure 1. Simple model of liquid-filled tank.

shell if not considered in the design of the tank. Also, the tank shell could buckle or tear
at the base if not designed for the loads resulting from additional impulsive mass.
The objective of this paper is to estimate the roof, shell, and foundation loads arising
from insufficient freeboard. An exact solution of nonlinear sloshing response from fluid
dynamics is quite complex. Instead, an approximate solution with engineering accuracy
is presented.

MODEL OF TANK-LIQUID SYSTEM

IMPULSIVE AND CONVECTIVE MASSES


A sufficiently accurate model of tank of radius R filled with liquid to height H is
shown in Figure 1. The impulsive mass mi and the convective mass mc add up to the total
liquid mass ml. In columns 4 and 5 of Table 1, mi / ml and mc / ml are presented for vari-
ous H / R ratios. The higher the H / R, the higher the constraining action of the tank wall,
therefore the greater the impulsive mass. The heights of impulsive and convective
masses hi and hc, as fractions of the total liquid height H, are presented in columns 6 and
7 of Table 1, for various H / R ratios.

IMPULSIVE AND CONVECTIVE PERIODS


The natural periods of the impulsive and the convective modes, in seconds, are
冑␳ ⫻ H
Timp = Ci ⫻ 共1兲
冑teq/R ⫻ 冑E
Tcon = Cc ⫻ 冑R 共2兲
TECHNICAL NOTE: SLOSHING LOADS IN LIQUID-STORAGE TANKS WITH INSUFFICIENT FREEBOARD 1187

Table 1. Recommended design values for the impulsive and convective modes of vibration as a func-
tion of the tank height to radius ratio H / R 共Malhotra et al. 2000兲

H/R Ci Cc关s / m1/2兴 mi / ml mc / ml hi / H hc / H hi⬘ / H h⬘c / H


共1兲 共2兲 共3兲 共4兲 共5兲 共6兲 共7兲 共8兲 共9兲

0.3 9.28 2.09 0.176 0.824 0.400 0.521 2.640 3.414


0.5 7.74 1.74 0.300 0.700 0.400 0.543 1.460 1.517
0.7 6.97 1.60 0.414 0.586 0.401 0.571 1.009 1.011
1.0 6.36 1.52 0.548 0.452 0.419 0.616 0.721 0.785
1.5 6.06 1.48 0.686 0.314 0.439 0.690 0.555 0.734
2.0 6.21 1.48 0.763 0.237 0.448 0.751 0.500 0.764
2.5 6.56 1.48 0.810 0.190 0.452 0.794 0.480 0.796
3.0 7.03 1.48 0.842 0.158 0.453 0.825 0.472 0.825

where teq = equivalent uniform thickness of the tank wall, ␳ = mass density of liquid, and
E = modulus of elasticity of tank material. The coefficients Ci and Cc are presented in
columns 2 and 3 of Table 1. The coefficient Ci is dimensionless, whereas Cc is expressed
in s / m1/2; therefore, substituting R in meters in Equation 2 yields the correct value of
the convective period in seconds. For tanks with non-uniform wall thickness, teq may be
computed by taking a weighted average over the wetted height of the tank wall, assign-
ing highest weight to the thickness near the base of the tank where the strain is maxi-
mum.

IMPULSIVE AND CONVECTIVE DAMPING RATIOS


The damping ratio for the impulsive mode of vibration may be assumed to be 2 per-
cent of critical for steel and pre-stressed concrete tanks and 5 percent of critical for re-
inforced concrete tanks. The damping ratio for the convective mode of vibration may be
assumed to be 0.5 percent of critical.

SEISMIC BASE SHEAR AND OVERTURNING MOMENT

BASE SHEAR
The impulsive and convective base shears are

Qi = 共mi + mw + mr + mb兲 ⫻ SA共Timp兲 共3兲

Qc = mc ⫻ SA共Tcon兲 共4兲
where mw = the mass of tank wall, mr = the mass of tank roof; mb = the mass of tank base;
SA共Timp兲 = the impulsive spectral acceleration, obtained from a 2 percent damping elastic
response spectrum for steel and pre-stressed concrete tanks, and a 5 percent damping
elastic response spectrum for concrete tanks; and SA共Tcon兲 = the convective spectral ac-
celeration, obtained from a 0.5 percent damping elastic response spectrum.
1188 P. K. MALHOTRA

OVERTURNING MOMENT ABOVE BASE PLATE


The impulsive and convective overturning moments immediately above the base
plate are

Mi = 共mi ⫻ hi + mw ⫻ hw + mr ⫻ hr兲 ⫻ SA共Timp兲 共5兲

Mc = mc ⫻ hc ⫻ SA共Tcon兲 共6兲
where hi and hc are the heights of the centroid of the impulsive and convective hydro-
dynamic wall pressures; they are provided in columns 6 and 7 of Table 1 as fractions of
liquid height H; hw and hr are the heights of the centers of gravity of the tank wall and
roof, respectively.

OVERTURNING MOMENT BELOW BASE PLATE


Additional overturning moment is generated by hydrodynamic pressure on the tank
base. The net impulsive overturning moment, immediately below the base plate, is given
by

M⬘i = 共mi ⫻ h⬘i + mw ⫻ hw + mr ⫻ hr兲 ⫻ SA共Timp兲 共7兲

Mc⬘ = mc ⫻ hc⬘ ⫻ SA共Tcon兲 共8兲


where the heights h⬘i and hc⬘ are provided in columns 8 and 9 of Table 1 as fractions of
liquid height H.
If the tank is supported on a ring foundation, the moments Mi and Mc are used to
design the tank wall and the foundation. If the tank is supported on mat or pile founda-
tions, moments Mi and Mc are used to design the tank wall and anchors, while M⬘i and
Mc⬘ are used to design the foundation.

FREE-SURFACE WAVE HEIGHT


The vertical displacement of liquid surface due to sloshing is

SA共Tcon兲
d=R⫻ 共9兲
g
where g = acceleration due to gravity. A simple way to understand Equation 9 is to imag-
ine that the liquid-filled tank moves horizontally with an acceleration SA共Tcon兲, as shown
in Figure 2a. Under equilibrium, the free-surface would be at an angle ␪ with respect to
the horizontal, where

␪ = tan−1 冉 SA共Tcon兲
g
冊 共10兲

This gives the height of the sloshing wave as d = R · tan ␪ = R · SA共Tcon兲 / g, thus, the proof
of Equation 9.
TECHNICAL NOTE: SLOSHING LOADS IN LIQUID-STORAGE TANKS WITH INSUFFICIENT FREEBOARD 1189

Figure 2. Liquid-filled tank translating with an acceleration SA共Tcon兲: 共a兲 sufficient freeboard,
and 共b兲 insufficient freeboard.

EFFECTS OF INSUFFICIENT FREEBOARD

ROOF LOAD
Next, consider the case of insufficient freeboard, i.e., actual freeboard df is less than
the required freeboard d obtained from Equation 9. For a horizontal acceleration of
SA共Tcon兲, the free-surface of the liquid is still at an angle ␪ from the horizontal. How-
ever, a portion of the tank roof is wetted, as seen in Figure 2b. We assume that the tank
roof is flat. This provides a conservative estimate of the effect of sloshing wave, because
a non-flat roof provides extra room to accommodate the sloshing wave. From SA共Tcon兲 / g
we know ␪ 共Equation 10兲. We can then determine the wetted width xf of the tank roof by
equating the volume of the empty space in the tank to ␲R2df. This gives the following
relationship between xf and df:

df 1
=
d ␲
1−
R
冉 冊冉
xf
· ␺0 −
sin 2␺0
2
+
2
3␲

sin3 ␺0 共11兲

where ␺0 = cos−1共xf / R − 1兲.


Figure 3 shows a plot between the normalized freeboard df / d and the normalized
wetted width xf / R.
The amplification of roof pressure due to dynamic response of the tank roof has not
been considered. This is because the sloshing loads on the roof are applied slowly com-
1190 P. K. MALHOTRA

Figure 3. Normalized wetted width of tank roof, xf / R as a function of actual/required free-


board, df / d.

pared to the expected natural period of vibration of the tank roof. Typically, the period of
the sloshing wave is longer than 3 s and because it is applied near the circumference of
the roof, it excites higher modes of vibration of the roof, which are generally of much
shorter period 共stiff兲.

SHELL AND FOUNDATION LOADS


The maximum upward pressure on the tank roof due to sloshing wave is 共Figure 4兲

Pmax = ␳ · g · xf tan ␪ 共12兲


The upward force on the roof is resisted by the vertical tensile force in the shell. The
connection between the shell and the roof should be designed to transfer this force. If xf
is small compared to R, the force per unit circumference of the tank shell may be ap-
proximated as follows:

1 1
Fmax ⬇ Pmax · xf = ␳ · g · x2f · tan ␪ 共13兲
2 2
Substituting, tan ␪ = SA共Tcon兲 / g 共Equation 10兲 gives

1
Fmax ⬇ ␳ · x2f · SA共Tcon兲 共14兲
2
Equation 14 assumes that the upward force is resisted by the wet side of the tank shell
only. This is not a good assumption when xf / R is greater than, say, 0.5. Fmax should then
be estimated from more accurate static force-equilibrium analysis of the tank roof.
TECHNICAL NOTE: SLOSHING LOADS IN LIQUID-STORAGE TANKS WITH INSUFFICIENT FREEBOARD 1191

Figure 4. Radial variation of pressure on tank roof.

The constraint on the sloshing motion increases the mass participation in the impul-
sive mode. In the limiting case, if the freeboard is reduced to zero, the entire liquid in
the tank becomes impulsive. Therefore, the smaller the actual/required freeboard df / d,
the smaller the convective mass and the larger the impulsive mass. Assuming that the
convective mass reduces linearly from mc to 0 as df / d reduces from 1 to 0, the adjusted
values of the impulsive and convective masses are

冉 冊
冦 冧
df
mi + mc ⫻ 1 − for df ⬍ d
mi = d 共15兲
mi for df 艌 d

冦 冧
df
mc ⫻ for df ⬍ d
mc = d 共16兲
mc for df 艌 d
For tanks with insufficient freeboard, masses mi and mc should be used instead of mi and
mc to compute the base shears and moments 共Equations 3–8兲. We assume that the effect
of insufficient freeboard on impulsive and convective periods, hence SA共Timp兲 and
SA共Tcon兲 can be ignored.

CONCLUSION
A simple method has been presented to estimate additional loads on a tank’s roof,
wall, and foundation due to impacts from sloshing waves. In many cases, it may be eco-
nomical to design a tank for these additional loads than to build a taller tank with suf-
ficient freeboard.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Two anonymous reviewers provided several helpful comments. Martin Koller cor-
rected a mistake in Equations 12 and 13.
1192 P. K. MALHOTRA

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Housner, G. W., 1982. Dynamic analysis of fluids in containers subject to acceleration, ASCE
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共Received 11 September 2003; accepted 20 January 2005兲

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